It’s too bad Jon Rahm wasn’t qualified to play in the PGA Championship.
After all, this extraordinary rookie is one of the hottest players on the PGA Tour. He’s out to win his card the hard way and he’s well on his way.
Rahm is right in the thick of it after day one at the Travelers. He used a hot back nine and cooler front nine to post a five-under par 65, one shot off the lead. He could have had the solo lead but missed birdie putts from inside eight feet on his final two holes of the day, the eighth and ninth.
“It was great,” said the former Arizona State golfer who turned pro after the U.S. Open. “I felt overall, a pretty balanced day. Five-under is a pretty balanced score.” He played the back nine first and shot 30 thanks to an eagle and four birdies. Coming in, it wasn’t as exciting and the two missed short ones left him tied with Ben Martin and Marc Leishman.
The surprise name at the top is Vaughn Taylor. Taylor won the AT&T at Pebble Beach early in the season but hasn’t done anything since. In fact, he’s missed 10 cuts this season but found something on Thursday at the TPC River Highlands. It was a quiet start with eight straight pars but he caught fire starting at the 12th hole and rattled off five straight birdies and finished with a 64 to share the lead with Jerry Kelly and Andrew Loupe.
“I played good early just couldn’t get a putt to go,” said Taylor. “Then I kinda got it going. You get on a roll sometimes and you just kinda ride it.”
Three of the four members of the Olympic team are in the field. Two-time former champion Bubba Watson shot a bogey-free 67, Matt Kuchar 69 and Patrick Reed 70. Rickie Fowler is in Rio and will be in the opening ceremony with the U.S. athletes.
